


No Genin Allowed

by Alphum



Series: Pastel Promiseland [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Awkward Flirting, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 19:00:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30110538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alphum/pseuds/Alphum
Summary: There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes of the Chunin exams-- after all, the genin can't have all the fun, right?Some alternate points of view of the exams, set in a nothing-bad-ever-happened-to-anyone AU (the Pastel-verse) so that we can get a look at what's happening outside of team 14's little bubble.
Relationships: Uchiha Shisui/Utakata
Series: Pastel Promiseland [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1799359
Comments: 3
Kudos: 38





	No Genin Allowed

**Author's Note:**

> Please be sure to check out the other parts of this series! You can read without, but just assume everyone's alive and well!

The Kage meetings were always entertaining. Along with the Kage of the 5 great nations, there were also Kage representatives of smaller countries, like Rain or Sound. The meeting was the day after the main banquet and festival, a more private, personal welcome to the other villages. It took place in a large, round room with tall ceilings and large windows. Many of the windows were open to let in the warm summer breeze.

Mei was resplendent, as usual. She’d taken extra time to primp that morning, a luxury she didn’t always partake in. She settled in her assigned chair, setting her hat on the desk in front of her. Her kimono and robes billowed around her and settled like pools of rich fabric around her. She looked more like a woman posing for a painting, draped in finery, than the leader of a village. Utakata knew full well that it was a carefully cultivated act though. She was young, one of the younger Kage in the room. The only one who approached her in age, who may actually have been younger, was the young Kage from Rain, a redheaded man, likely of Uzushio descent.

Glancing around, and with a quick word to Saiken, he confirmed that he wasn’t the only Jinchuuriki in the room. 

The Kyuubi was in a tall redheaded woman behind the Hokage. The Nibi and the Hachibi were behind the Raikage, a blond woman of average height and an enormous man respectively. Four of the nine Jinchuriki in the same room was impressive. Yagura was outside with Zabuza, only two retainers allowed into the meeting at a time, so that brought the total up to five. He was fairly sure he’d sensed the Ichibi and the Nanabi earlier as well. That brought his tally up to seven. Leave it to Iwa to sequester their Jinchuriki away, he figured. Utakata slouched lazily against the wall, keeping a ready eye on the room at large. He wasn’t expecting trouble, but so many powerful people in such a small space made him itch.

Utakata and Ao stood at ease as the Hokage settled the room with warm smiles and warmer welcomes. He was dressed for action in Konoha Jounin blues and olive flak vest, though he was wearing his trademark jacket over top of it, painted with flames upto his hips.

Namikaze welcomed them all warmly, genuine happiness setting the room somewhat more at ease. Then it was time for the presentations.

Ugh.

Four ANBU stepped into the central presentation space, fully armored and masked, telegraphing their movements. Konoha ANBU masks were themed around different mammals, rather than marine life like Kiri. Their masks were a Dog, a Cat, an Otter, and a Jackal. The man in the Dog mask spoke. “I am Hound. I will be overseeing security for the exams.”

Utakata entertained himself by trying to place the ANBU from his latest Bingo book. Hound was definitely Kakashi Hatake. He usually worked in tandem with Rin Nohara and Obito Uchiha, who were probably Otter and Jackal respectively. That left Cat as the only unknown and trying to match his measurements to the various ninja in the Bingo book took up the rest of their presentation. 

“And now we will be hearing from each of the proctors about each stage of the tests. Inoichi, you’re up!” Minato beamed and took his seat beside the Kyuubi host and his Nara advisor.

-

Utakata listened, but paid little attention aside from occasionally matching someone up to their Bingo book entry, mostly just subtly scanning and rescanning the room for any threats. None appeared, of course. He shifted slightly, slouching further back against the wall. Standing at attention was so much effort. He ignored Ao giving him the stink-eye. It wasn’t as effective, since he was trying to give him the stink-eye with the eye that was covered by his eye patch. He perked up a bit when the third round proctors came to the center floor. The man at their head was  _ cute _ .

“Yo! I’m Shisui Uchiha, Konoha Jounin! I’ll be heading up the third round of the exams!” He smiled with uncharacteristic ease for a Uchiha. He had a short-cut shag of wild curls and a short sword at his waist. “This is Kotetsu Hagane and Izumo Kamizuki, my seconds. Now, the third round is a little unusual in that it’s broken into two parts. The first part will take place immediately after the retrieval and survival round in the Forest of Death. In the first part, we will be measuring and taking stock of how well your genin can take on an enemy without any foreknowledge, intel gathering, or preparation. There will then be a two week break between the first and second parts. At the end of the first part, they draw straws to determine their matchups for the second part, which is tournament bracket style duels. We’ll get to see how they fare with foreknowledge of their opponents, ample time to recover and prepare, and gather intel on their opponents. As is typical, a candidate does not need to win any of their fights to be promoted, as we are measuring their expertise in a multitude of areas.” He broke down the exams with ease, spinning a pencil in his fingers as he spoke. Utakata knew that the pencil could be just as deadly in his hand as a blade. 

Utakata had the bingo book memorized, knew that if he came across Shisui on the opposite side of a battlefield, that his best plan of action was to listen to the bingo book. Shisui Uchiha: Flee on Sight. The Uchiha were notorious for churning out prodigies. It was interesting to see what became of them when they weren’t frontline in a war, but were free to pursue other jobs in peacetime. Apparently while some of them became jounin instructors, some of them became test proctors.

Utakata wished he had a history of being more social, or at least had more practice at it. Then at least he might have an excuse to go over and talk to him during one of the day’s breaks. Unfortunately, he had more practice at killing people than he did befriending them. But. Wait. He was chatting with the Kyuubi vessel. This could be an opening. It wouldn’t be unusual of him to socialize with one of his few peers. Saiken was terribly social, after all.

“Mei.” He bent slightly to speak with her. “Saiken wishes to say hello to the other Jinchuuriki.”

She waved her hand, not bothering to look up from the papers in front of her. “Have at it. Send in Zabuza if you leave, his bitchface should get some of this moving faster.” She murmured.

Utakata snorted. “Understood.”

_ “It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to speak with Kurama!”  _ Saiken piped up.

‘It will be nice to say hello, I’m sure.’ He thought back, moving around the room to the Konoha table.

The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki felt him coming and looked up with a broad smile from where she was talking with Shisui Uchiha. “Rokubi!” She hurried over to him and threw her arms around him.

He laughed, surprised. “Kyuubi.” He hugged her gently. For all that he’d never met her, when she was up in his personal space and wearing at least two swords, he felt perfectly safe. It was probably Saiken’s doing.

She pulled back a bit and held out her hand. It was glowing with orange chakra.

Utakata instinctively pulled at Saiken’s chakra, coating his own hand with white, before clasping their arms together, letting their chakra pool so that Kurama and Saiken could talk.

A rush of thoughts and emotions flooded through his connection with Saiken and he looked up from their connected hands to meet Kushina’s gaze.

“Utakata, huh?” Kushina smiled, doubtlessly having received the same rush of information from Kurama. 

“Kushina.” He nodded.

“Nice to meet you, cousin!” She grinned and threw an arm around his shoulders.

Utakata realized belatedly that Shisui was watching them with interest, at the same time that Kushina seemed to twig to his thoughts. 

Her grin went wicked around the edges. “Shisui!” She said loudly, though he was right beside them. “This is my cousin Utakata! Uta, this is Shisui, one of my students, so be nice to him, okay?”

Shisui rolled his eyes, though he was smiling. “What sort of cousin is this one?” He asked, amused. “A real cousin this time, maybe? Or another friend of your auntie’s who isn’t really your aunty?” He teased.

Kushina pouted. “He’s my cousin!” She insisted.

Utakata smothered down a laugh and held out his hand to Shisui instead. “Utakata. I’m the rokubi jinchuriki.” 

Shisui’s smile brightened. “One of those cousins, huh? Nice to meet you, Utakata! Welcome to Konoha!” He shook his hand. His hands were warm and calloused. He was even prettier up close. One of his eyes was covered with a bandana that folded down from his leaf headband. His messy curls had been tamed somewhat since his presentation, wrestled into a clip to keep it out of his face. He had large, plush lips that begged to be painted and a proud nose that had never been broken. He wore simple jewelry in several piercings on his ears and a number of colorful bracelets on each arm that varied in terms of age and make. He wore his sleeves shoved up to his elbows, exposing lean, powerful forearms that were tanned golden brown from Konoha’s endless sun.

Utakata could absolutely devour this man, if given half a chance.

Kushina laughed loudly in his ear, making him jump and remember the damn pseudo-psycic connection between them.

“ _ Just remember, if you devour my student, I’ll be the one devouring you.” _ She promised him sweetly, pressing the words deliberately through their connection.

Well… That wasn’t a  _ no…  _

‘ _ You humans and your hormones. _ ’ Saiken sighed.

Utakata rolled his eyes. Yeah, this was going to get old pretty quickly, but he didn’t have the heart to shake Kushina’s arm off when Saiken finally had a chance to talk to one of his siblings.

**Author's Note:**

> For House <3 I'm gonna make these two SMOOCH dangit!!  
> I'm excited to get into some POVs to explore Konoha a bit!! <3   
> Leave me a comment and let me know what you liked <3


End file.
